” Phil Nuytten‘s newest diving suit may as well have been invented by Tony Stark. At six and a half feet long, and weighing 530 pounds, the aluminum contraption looks more like a Buzz Lightyear ripoff than anything.

Even its name, the “Exosuit,” sounds like slang from a science fiction novel.

It’s a first-of-its-kind design that lets deep sea divers plunge more than 1,000 feet underwater, all the while maintaing surface level pressure. The state-of-the-art rotary joints throughout the arms and legs allow divers extreme flexibility and finesse, as well — apparently, enough to pick up a dime.

This July, researchers are using the suit to study bioluminescent organisms deep within the Atlantic Ocean. Due to their extreme depths, the creatures were previously only attainable via remote instruments or trawl nets. Now, scientists will be able to use the Exosuit and observe them up close in their natural habitats.

The ultimate goal is to collect the organisms’ unique, fluorescent proteins and use them in future studies about cancer detection, spinal cord injuries and the overall makeup of the human brain.”

” Deep diving has never been a safe operation. More than 10 divers were killed from decompression-related injuries during the 1970s, Nuytten says. One of them, his friend and co-diver Norm McDonald, died after the decompression chamber he entered after a dive caught on fire.

” I’m a great believer in these one atmosphere systems,” he says.

As humans, we like to think of ourselves as a species that’s very tough and flexible. But that’s absolute horse shit.

As humans, we like to think of ourselves as a species that’s very tough and flexible. But that’s absolute horse shit. We’re one of the most fragile critters on Earth, designed at sea level in a warm environment. We can’t go far from those design specifications without a lot of help.”